


Group Projects Suck

by AnnabethBlack



Category: Drawfee RPF
Genre: Gen, High School AU, I'm Sorry, Teen Angst, art class, group project
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2019-06-10 07:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15286248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnabethBlack/pseuds/AnnabethBlack
Summary: High School AU - Caldwell, Nathan, Jacob, Julia, and Willie are all five shitty teens in their senior year at Saint Porfo's Prep. They don't really know each other and they definitely don't get along but all that changes when they are forced into a group for an art project that may or may not decide their future.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a twitter thread with @gayfeeshow and @skidspace - I decided to leave the Breakfast Club open to someone with more experience with that film however I couldn't resist writing ShyNerd!Nathan and Jock!Caldwell

To say that Saint Porfo’s Prep art class was going as normal would be slightly misleading. What was normal for this particular group of high school seniors was not necessarily how art class went in other institutions, however this particular group of teens was used to the sub-par comedic repertoire between their teacher and one particular student.

“A group project?  _ A GROUP PROJECT? _ But sir! The only thing worse than a group project is a shared grade!” Jake Young (Nerd, 18) exploded with contempt at the announcement his art teacher had just made.

“Yeah, you guys will all be sharing a grade too.” Mr “Call-Me-Tony” Wilson (High School Art Teacher, maybe 30?) shrugged, clearly nonplussed by yet another one of Jake’s outbursts.

“ _ WHAT? _ Are you kidding me with this bull-”

“Watch it Jake, you’re still in class.” Tony warned.

“Bull-oney? Bologna? This is ART Mr Wilson.  _ ART! _ First of all, we shouldn’t be assessed on it using the traditional academic grading system because art is  _ subjective _ and a  _ skill _ that not everyone can hone. Also there is no such thing as  _ right  _ or _ wrong _ because it is fricking  _ ART _ ! Second of all, if I am going to fail a class – especially a bad one that is judged on how well one can hold a pencil and make impressions on paper – then I at least want to fail on my own merit! I can clearly see the list of predetermined groups on your desk. What if you decided to randomly lump me in with  _ all of the people who can’t draw for shi-” _

“Jake I am not going to warn you again.” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“ _ Shirley Temple! _ Then my grade is going to fail and all because of something – or rather some people – which does not reflect my academic ability! This group project could be the deciding factor in my admission to college! This could-”

“You know I hate to cut you short Jake but we agreed that you could only have three minutes of rant time per class. Time’s up but you do get another sticker on your chart for creative expression.” Tony smiled, holding out a cool dinosaur sticker.

Jake got up from his desk, grumbling something about not wanting a dumb sticker, yet he still snatched it from Tony and stalked over to the chart on the wall where he stuck it in the row next to his name. Tony watched from his casual leaning against the front of his desk, arms holding his weight stance and waited patiently for Jake to be seated once more. The rest of the art class watched in silence and waited with varying levels of indifference for Tony to resume speaking.

“So yeah, to summarise: Group art project, shared grade, groups of five, theme: The Unthinkable. Go.”

“… But sir, you haven’t told us our groups yet.” Nathan Yaffe (That Invisible Kid, 17) piped up from his seat in the middle of the room.

“Oh shit, yeah.” Tony chuckled and reached behind him without looking for his piece of paper, knocking several things over in the process.

“How come you’re allowed to swear but I’m not?” Jake scowled.

“Because I’m your teacher now shut up Jake,” Tony rolled his eyes as the rest of the class sniggered. “You can all shut up actually now listen for your groups. Group A: Jake, Shen, Hannah, Andy, and Maria. Group B: Nathan, Hugh-”

“Um, sir, if you look at my name on the register is says I prefer to be referred to as Caldwell.” Hugh Caldwell Tanner (Jock, 18) piped up from the back of the class, desperately trying to ignore the sniggers of his fellow jocks around him.

“And I prefer not to be interrupted but there we go,” Tony retorted. “ _ As I was saying _ Group B: Nathan,  _ Caldwell _ , Julia, Jacob, and Willie. Group C…”

“Why’d they have to separate us?” Jake leaned over and hissed to Nathan.

Nathan, for his part, kept his eyes down focusing on his desk as he methodically turned a pencil over and over in his hands. He could feel the eyes of his fellow group mates burning through his skin from various directions around the classroom, an act which was slowly turning him tomato red.

“I dunno,” Nathan mumbled back. “Maybe because Mr Wilson thinks you are piggy backing off of my art?”

“You and I both know my mediocre abilities, while inspired by your work, are average on their own merit. I think he is just being a dick. I mean, everyone knows that you and Huge-”

“Hey Jake, want to come over and join us?”

Nathan and Jake looked up to see Maria (Smart Kid, 17) standing there, looking at Jake specifically.

“I – um – yes – girl.” Jake stammered.

His face twitched unnaturally, causing Hannah to recoil somewhat.

“Well grab your stuff. We are sitting over here.” And with that she quickly hurried over to the rest of her group.

“Smooth.” Nathan teased, unable to stifle his smirk.

“Shut up,” Jake pushed Nathan’s arm as he stood up. “Females are an alien species-”

“Jake just shut up and go to your group.” Nathan grinned, his smile just a little bit too wide.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Jake spoke seriously in a low voice, looking around the room to check no one was eavesdropping.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Nathan shrugged off his friend’s concern. “Now go!”

Once Jake had (to the best of his ability) scampered off to join his group Nathan found himself working up the courage to stand and find his group. Nerves bubbled up in his stomach as he straightened his neck but then  _ SLAM!  _ He found himself retreating into his hoodie much like a tortoise as a bag slammed on to the desk Jake had just vacated.

“Aww, did I make the wittle baby Nathan jump?” Willie “Frickin’” Muse (Weird Theatre Kid, 17) asked in a mocking voice.

Nathan was always quite taken aback by Willie’s appearance, behaviour, and just overall attitude to life. There was nothing bad about it but Willie thrived on his spooky vibe, even if no one else liked it. In fact Nathan was quite impressed by his commitment to the pale foundation and large black eyeshadow Willie took the time to do every morning. The eyeliner alone must have been a challenge, at least in Nathan’s opinion, let alone the popping veins made of fake blood that Willie drew like a web around his eyes. Today Willie had on a tiny top hat with a black veil that dropped right to the tip of his nose and a black faux fur coat that just wasn’t suited to the warming spring weather.

“Hey Willie,” Nathan smiled meekly. “Yeah, that jump scare really got me.”

“Good.” Willie smiled smugly and sat down in his new seat.

“The only person you are scaring Willie is any future boyfriends.”

On his other side Nathan saw Jacob (Riot Boy, 18) and Julia (Aesthetically a Criminal, 18) each pull up a chair. As always they wore matching denim jackets covered in patches for things Nathan had never even heard of and black beanies that looked suspiciously handmade. Ripped black jeans seemed to be a staple of both their wardrobes however Julia was also rocking a flannel shirt around her waist which was rumoured to conceal the pocket knife she always had strapped to her belt. Now that they were in a group together Nathan secretly hoped that one day he would get to see said infamous knife.

“Shut your whore mouth Jacob. No one asked for your shitty opinion anyway.” Willie snapped.

“Fuck you Willie. Maybe I’d be nicer if you didn’t keep knocking stuff off my desk.” Jacob retorted.

“Fuck off you keep knocking things off  _ my _ desk and calling me names, you giant racist! Don’t blame the victim!” Willie shouted.

“Will both of you knock it off?” Caldwell intervened.

He had taken the chair in front of Nathan and turned it around so he was facing the group where they sat in a straight line.

“Well that’s a power move if I ever saw one.” Jacob commented specifically to Julia just loud enough for everyone else to hear.

Julia raised an eyebrow in response but kept her mouth firmly shut. Whatever was going on beside him, Nathan didn’t care. His mind had briefly wandered off as he assessed Caldwell. Next to Nathan himself (who just wore a simple black hoodie and jeans) Caldwell looked the most normal. Instead of a hoodie he had on his letterman jacket and his hair was neatly brushed versus Nathan’s messy ginger mop. There wasn’t much really to say about Caldwell other than the fact that his strong jaw was set in the look of a perturbed yet focused leader.

Caldwell was about to open his mouth to respond when Tony coughed loudly and addressed the class again.

“Okay guys, you have ten minutes to figure out a group name and design a logo. Everyone has to draw at least part of the logo, okay? No freeloading or your whole group instantly gets docked 5% off your grade before the project has even begun.”

“But sir! How is that fair?” Jake whined.

“Equality or something like that. How about we just go with because I said so?” Tony shrugged, causing the rest of the class to laugh under their breath. With a final look at the clock Tony announced “Your ten minutes starts now.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, listen up bitches, we are  _ not _ having a dumb sounding name so y’all better come up with something good.” Willie immediately piped up, leaning back dramatically in his chair.

“Porfo’s Angels isn't dumb and it reflects school spirit so-” Caldwell started up but the others instantly booed him down.

“No hecking way are we being called  _ Porfo's Angels _ ! At least be Jacob’s Angels, c’mon guys.” Jacob announced, standing up slightly in his seat with his arms raised to the ceiling in what could only be described as premature celebration.

“More like  _ Jacob's Floozies! _ ” Julia snorted and punched Jacob's gut. “No thanks!”

With a grunt Jacob plummeted back into his seat and clutched his stomach, cursing under his breath as Julia openly laughed at him.

“Oh yeah? Got a better name?” Jacob retorted snarkily.

“I do! I do!” Willie bounced up and down in his seat excitedly. “I’m thinking something spooky but also cool and easy to draw. Something like The Rotting Ghosts! Or maybe The Rotten Ghosts? Or what about Ghost Rot? Nah, Rotting Ghosts sounds better because it is plural and there are five of us…”

“First of all, those all sound as dumb as each other-” Jacob began

“Fuck you Jacob!” Willie shouted back.

Nathan shrank in his seat as the heated exchange continued and turned to look for Mr Wilson. It always surprised Nathan how little Tony seemed to care about what the class did during the time they were meant to be working. Even now, as Jacob and Willie were clearly getting heated to the point where they had began to shove one another, Tony just sat at his desk, slouched back in his chair, playing some sort of game on his mobile that required complete concentration and the swiping of his fingers in one of three directions.

With a sigh, Nathan looked around at his group. Now Caldwell and Julia were on their feet, grabbing Willie and Jacob respectively in an attempt to restrain them. Time was clearly ticking away and 5% could make or break their grade. Without thinking too much about it Nathan picked up a pencil and flipped to a new page in his sketchbook. In large, uneven bubble writing he quickly wrote a team name down and then began to draw.

“What are you doing?” Caldwell asked sharply, glancing over at Nathan.

“I’m doing the task so that way we don’t all fail,” Nathan replied quietly. “Here, your turn.” 

As non-aggressively as possible, Nathan held out his pencil and sketchbook to Caldwell and braced himself for the mockery that was sure to come. Instead Caldwell let out a brief laugh and immediately let go of Jacob to take the supplies from him and contribute to the logo.

“What is it?” Willie whined, craning his neck as far as he could whilst still locked in Julia’s firm grasp.

“Oh dang, this is actually cool. Me next.” Jacob grinned, sitting down next to Caldwell and patiently waiting for the sketchbook to make its way round.

“Huh?” Julia released Willie and together the odd duo went over to see what Jacob was now drawing. 

Julia laughed and her eyes lit up with a sort of excited glow Nathan had never seen before. It scared him a little bit as the flourescent high school lighting created a menacing glint. Next to her Willie grinned and then his smile faded and his brow furrowed.

“What’s wrong Willie?” Nathan asked, frowning slightly as he prepared himself yet again for an attack.

“I can’t draw.” Willie whispered, slumping down in the seat next to Nathan as Julia took her turn with the sketchbook.

“You have hands so you can draw,” Nathan replied unhelpfully. “I’m sure you are better than you think.” 

“First of all, Nathan, you are a dumb bitch. Second of all, look at my sketchbook and say that to my face again.” Willie rolled his eyes and shoved his scruffy sketchbook at Nathan.

Nathan stared at Willie, who glared back at him, before taking the sketch book and flipping through it. On the first page was some sort of chicken man with a large lopsided oval head that took up the majority of space. Beneath the head was a long, thin neck and a proportionally tiny body with even smaller stick feet. The eyes were oddly human, like two almonds sticking out of the head far too far apart to be natural. They were lidless and just seemed to stare off of the page and straight in to Nathan’s soul. 

He found himself entranced by the image for far too long so he flipped the page and saw that the drawing there had been scribbled all over. There was a long slashing line that looked like Willie had still had the pen on the paper when he threw the book away or perhaps kicked the table out from underneath him. The frustration was clear from the thick indents made that bled through onto the couple of pages after it. 

Nathan leafed through, skimming now as he was very much aware of Willie’s eyes burning into the top of his head. Desperately Nathan thought of something nice to say but it was eluding him. 

“These… uh… Well they aren’t great but they are not…  _ bad _ . The ideas you have are good but, um…” Nathan kept his eyes locked on the sketch book, methodically flipping the pages.

“Cut the crap Nathan. I am bad at art. Deal with it.” Willie huffed, folding his arms and sinking back into his chair with a scowl.

“Practice makes perfect?” Nathan offered unhelpfully.

To say that Nathan felt like a dick was an understatement but there wasn’t much he could really say. Willie was rather intimidating and the pair of them knew that anything that Nathan could have said in that moment would have been the wrong thing. Before he could really respond everyone’s attention was caught by a ruckus coming over from Jake’s table.

“I am just saying, it’s been more than ten minutes and he is  _ clearly _ just playing on his phone.” Jake’s voice was escalating.

“Shut UP!” Andy hissed, kicking Jake under the table. “We need the time.”

“Oh no, you did not just kick me!” Jake just dripped with sass as he stood up from the table and confronted Andy.

“Oh no.” Nathan moaned under his breath. 

He closed his eyes and missed Julia handing over the sketch book to Willie as she, Jacob, and Caldwell all flocked to the drama along with the majority of students in the class. Willie stayed sat  in his seat. The arguing from a table over had barely registered to him as he picked up a pencil with trembling hands. Nervously, Willie glanced at Nathan but, to Willie’s relief, Nathan seemed to be glued to his chair and slowly shrinking inside of his hoodie like some sort of fuzzy ginger turtle. As no one was watching Willie hunched down over the page, his tongue sticking out slightly as he focused on his addition to the team logo. 

“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING?” Tony shouted, sitting up straight now. 

At his words the class scattered back to their seats. None of them were particularly scared on Tony, after all he wasn’t particularly one for handing out punishments, but everyone had learned the hard way that arguing and pushing him was more hassle than it was worth. 

“Well it seems that your time is up. Who wants to present first?” Tony stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, scanning the classroom for the first sign of weakness to prey upon. “Willie! You are still drawing so your group must be ready! Tell us about your logo.”

“I - I - um,” Willie panicked and dropped his pencil, shoving the book at Nathan. “It was Nathan’s idea.”

“Okay well Nathan, buddy, do you want to emerge from your hoodie and tell us about your logo a bit?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

Slowly Nathan straightened up in his seat and gulped, pushing down the gnawing feeling in his stomach as he focused in on the sketch book before him.

“Well, everyone on our team wanted a cool name but we couldn’t agree. So I asked myself what was something cool but that everyone liked and the answer was dogs. So our team name is Just The Raddest Dogs and so the logo is a dog that each of us think is rad. I drew a little cartoon dog there with the biggest smile because I think all dogs are straight up rad. I’m not sure about the others though…” Nathan trailed off, glancing at Caldwell who seemed to just get what he had to do next.

“Well my dog has a backwards baseball cap and it is riding a rocket skateboard because all of those things are just naturally cool as I am sure we can all agree.” Caldwell grinned.

“Yeah, those are cool but dogs wearing clothes is also hella rad so mine has a leather jacket and a mohawk for extra radness.” Jacob joined in, nudging Julia lightly with his elbow.

“Oh. Yeah. Mine has on the exact outfit I am wearing now but also with sunglasses ‘cause that is rad.” Julia shrugged.

“Mine is my dog Lily. She is already the raddest dog in existence but if I could improve her in exactly one (1) way I would give her vampire fangs so she has them there and that gray stuff on the end is Jacob’s blood because she just bit his neck.” Willie stuck his tongue out at the end pointedly at Jacob. 

In his seat Jacob glared at Willie and started to rise but Julia laid a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping Jacob seated. 

“Well you did what I asked and I figure this is a pass/fail assignment so yeah, sure, you get 5%.” Tony shrugged. “Who’s next?”

Nathan sighed with relief and looked down at the sketch book in front of him. All of the styles were so different. Julia favoured thick, dark lines versus Jacob’s thin cartoon-y style. Caldwell and Nathan were perhaps the most similar but it was still clear that they had their own flairs and Willie… well it was a rushed scribble but to his credit it did look like a dog with fangs and he only had a couple of minutes. 

“Hey Nathan?” Caldwell’s voice drew Nathan out of the spiral his brain was beginning to roll down. 

“Yeah?” Nathan asked hesitantly.

“I appreciate what you did today but maybe next time run the idea by us before you just go ahead and start drawing, yeah?” Caldwell sneered.

“Oh,” Nathan felt as if he had been kicked in the gut. “Yeah, sure. I just- you know what? Never mind. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”

Above them the bell shrilled signalling the end of the class.

“If you have told me about your group’s logo you can go. If not then stay. No one goes to lunch until they have had their turn to talk.” Tony shouted above the shuffling and rustling of kids hurriedly packing away their things. 

Keeping his head down, Nathan shoved his book into his bag and quickly rushed out, easily melting into the crowd of teenagers shoving their way through the halls outside, invisible once more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank you to Nathan for liking my fic and talking about it on a Drawfee livestream! I will try to update at least once a fortnight.   
> Also this chapter would not have been published if it were not for my beta reader Ghostrot, and my very supportive friends: Maria, Jana, and Chloe!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.

Nathan lay slumped on the desk in study hall, hood pulled over his head and chin resting atop a single folded arm as he doodled absent-mindedly along the margins of his biology homework. As he left out a large, aimless huff a lock of his floppy red hair floated upwards in a short lived attempt at defying gravity. 

To his right Jake grumbled and muttered under his breath, clicking furiously with the mouse as he scowled at the luminous screen. Nathan glanced over to his friend occasionally, seeing how Jake’s mouth opened and closed several times like a snapping turtle as Jake figured out the words that he wanted to say. It was amusing to Nathan how Jake could be so eloquent and precise with his words one second and be completely lost the next. 

Jake finally gathered himself and with one big breath asked “Do you think I am just an exposition machine?”  

Nathan lifted his head off of his arm to look Jake in the eye.

“What? No. Why would I think that?” He asked, straightening up and twisting slightly so he was facing Jake properly. 

“Well, I was just about to launch into a tirade about the injustice of the art homework and the whole Blackboard System™ when this thought popped into my head and now I can’t shake it.” Jake frowned.

“Oh yeah? And what was that?” Nathan straightened up fully and removed his hood.

“Well, the scenario you find yourself in is very reminiscent of a crappy high school movie in which five unlikely protagonists become friends. Like a crappy version of the Breakfast Club or Power Rangers,” Jake explained. “And in these types of movies, and all types of teen movies to be honest, the audience surrogate - in this case you because you are the most average and relatable person of the bunch - has a best friend who serves as a proxy to convey expositional information by means of lazy screenwriting.”

Nathan was quiet for a moment as he mulled over what Jake had said. It was a lot to take in, especially when Jake spoke so quickly and earnestly. Rubbing his tired eyes, Nathan finally made sense of his friend’s ramble.

“So you’re like the Ned to my Peter Parker?” Nathan grinned.

“Was he an exposition machine? Because I feel like I would have noticed if he was an exposition machine.” Jake side-eyed Nathan, wary but still playing ball. 

“What would you classify him as then?” Nathan asked, that silly grin still smothering his face.

“More of a stereotypical, comedic non-powered best friend who uses slightly meta humour to cover the fact that he is mainly just a chubby ex-machina.” Jake shrugged in an attempt to keep it casual.

“You really think Ned is a chubby ex-machina?” The grin began to fade off of Nathan’s face as he noticed a vein begin to throb in Jake’s temple. 

“THERE IS NO WAY A RANDOM HIGH SCHOOLER FROM  _ QUEENS _ WHO PLAYS WITH LEGO IN HIS SPARE TIME COULD HACK INTO A SUIT MADE BY  _ TONY ‘I’M-LITERALLY-A-GENIUS’ STARK _ ! IF HE WAS THAT CLEVER OR SKILLED THEN HE WOULD HAVE BEEN PICKED UP BY A TECHNICAL SCHOOL OR SOMETHING BECAUSE THERE IS NO WAY IRON MAN WOULD BE LAX ON THE SECURITY OF HIS ONLY SON’S SUPERSUIT! THIS THEREFORE MAKES NED AN EX-MACHINA THAT REALLY THE MCU NEEDS TO ADDRESS.” In a manner very much reminiscent of the hulk, Jake exploded into a fiery passion as he schooled Nathan.

“Spiderman isn’t-” Nathan began but Jake instantly cut him off.

“Nathan,” Jake’s eyes locked onto Nathan’s as he gave the most deadpan, serious look that Nathan had ever received in his life. “Nathan, the relationship of mentor and mentee from Spiderman Civil War to Spiderman Homecoming is clearly surpassed by a more paternal feeling clearly exuded by Tony ‘No-Longer-A-Fuck-Boi-But-A-Family-Man’ Stark. If you argue with me I will literally bitch slap you into next period before dumping a twelve-page, double-sided, single-spaced, hardbound essay on your balls for you to read on why I am right.”

There was silence as Nathan and Jake just stared at each other. Jake could see the gears spinning behind Nathan’s still slightly sleepy eyes. It was an amusing sight but not enough to break his composure.

“You know, now that I think about it-” Nathan started but Jake cut him off again.

“Don’t Nathan. Just don’t.” Jake placed a hand on Nathan’s arm and shook his head.

Jake’s eyes had clouded over and he stared darkly off into the middle distance, but as Nathan opened his mouth to speak once more he was interrupted by an unexpected arrival. Willie freaking Muse had stormed into the Study Hall, his eyes practically glowing with the sheer rage inside of him as he scanned the sea of students. Nathan noticed that Willie’s eyeliner had been smudged a little and his top hat was skewed so the veil hung awkwardly by his ear. The black faux fur coat was slung over Willie’s satchel, revealing a black and white striped crewneck shirt beneath it. 

As Nathan stared, Willie’s eyes finally found his. The rage turned into what Nathan could only describe as some sort of “a-ha!” emotion as Willie stormed over to him, his boots thumping loudly on the ground. As quickly as he could, Nathan broke eye contact to return to the biology book before him but he already knew it was too late as Willie’s clomps and stomps got a whole lot closer. 

“Have you seen this bullshit Tony just put on the Blackboard?” Willie shouted, slamming his bag with a lot more force than necessary on top of some books that had been sprawled out on Nathan’s other side.

“Hey, do you want to watch your fucking mouth? I’m trying to study here.” Chloe (Australian Transfer Student, 18) growled, snatching her sketchbook out from underneath Willie’s belongings.

“Nobody asked you Chloe,” Willie snapped. “But I like what you’ve done with your hair.”

Chloe put a hand to her electric blue hair before forcing a smile and grabbing the rest of her stuff. “Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it,” Willie turned back to Nathan. “But have you seen this shit?”

“I was literally about to tell him as you walked in.” Jake piped up, breaking out of his trance.

“Cool, I didn’t ask you either.” Willie replied snidely.

“Um, you know what Nathan? I think I am just going to go find my own group. Oh look, Maria is right over there.” Jake scrambled to get his stuff and shot off before he had even logged out of his computer. 

“That wasn’t very nice.” Nathan commented, leaning over and making sure Jake had saved all of his open work.

“I’m not very nice.” Willie retorted but as he glanced over Nathan could see the small frown on Willie’s face that suggested otherwise. 

“Oh good, you made finding you easy.” 

Julia’s voice came from behind Nathan, causing him to jump. His face turned tomato red as Nathan looked up to see Julia and Jacob standing behind him, having appeared from seemingly nowhere. 

“Scaring people is my thing! Cut it out!” Willie whined, glaring at Jacob and Julia.

In response Julia raised an eyebrow. Instantly Willie buttoned his lip and sat down, looking up at Jacob and Julia with a relatively muted scowl.

“So have you seen the homework?” Julia asked Nathan.

“Not yet.” Nathan mumbled, moving back to his own chair and turning it so he could face Julia and Jacob properly. He felt rude having his backs to them.

“I mean, aside from the fact that it is total bullshit-” Jacob began.

“Hey! That’s what I said!” Willie growled.

“Yeah, I don’t think we can all do it because then we would have to figure out when we are all free and that is just too complicated and there is no way I am meeting up outside of school hours.” Jacob finished. 

“Yeah, I have stuff after school every day this week too so I can’t have it done by next class,” Julia shrugged. “And Caldwell told us to tell you that he is busy with football practice after school and wrestling on the weekend and lacrosse at lunch so he definitely doesn’t have any free time to do it.”

“You know sports is meant to be an extracurricular? It shouldn’t cut into class or homework time that much.” Willie pointed out.

“I still don’t know what the homework is guys.” Nathan mumbled sheepishly.

“That’s cool. Look it up and then you and Willie can decide between you who does it.” Jacob shrugged this time and smirked. 

“Fuck off Jacob that’s not fair.” Willie stood up but Jacob didn’t waiver.

Jacob sighed and pulled a weird face before saying “If I’m being honest Willie, I think you should do it because Nathan saved all our asses in class and your dog wasn’t all that great.” 

“Just because I can’t draw good doesn’t mean that I should be lumped with the homework!” Willie shouted.

“Hey! Break it up! This is study hall, not the playground!” Tony shouted, striding across the room. “Willie what is up with you today man?”

“Jacob is being a total jerk-off and-” Willie started.

“Hey, chill with the language,” Tony did some sort of weird movement with his hands as though was pushing down air repeatedly with his palms. “But also Jacob, stop being a jerk off.”

“Hey, Mr Wilson, can we talk to you about the homework for a sec please?” Nathan asked, looking nervously at the group.

“Nope. I’m going to the staff room. Just keep it down, okay?” And with that, Tony walked away.

“Well that wasn’t helpful.” Nathan sighed. 

At his words the school bell rang, signalling the end of the period. 

“Neither was that.” He mumbled to himself as all of his peers began to rise to their feet in order to begin the mass exodus. 

Among the scrambling of books and papers, Jacob and Julia melted away into the growing crowd, leaving Nathan and Willie standing there alone. Willie sank back down into the chair again, holding his head in his hands and staring at the floor. Unsure of what he should say or do, Nathan stalled by packing his own bag and making sure Jake’s computer had been logged off. Once the final dregs of students were leaving the room, Nathan finally spoke in a soft, low voice to Willie.

“Hey, look, let me just find out what the homework is and then maybe we can sit down tomorrow lunch time and-”

“I don’t need your pity or your help Nathan! I’ll just do it on my own!” Willie scowled. 

With that, Willie snatched up his bag and practically ran from the room, pushing past Jake who was coming in to find Nathan. In the most exaggerated fashion, Jake rolled his eyes and shook his head before carrying on to Nathan.

“What’s his problem?” Jake huffed.

“Jacob was being unfair and Willie is understandably upset. Maybe we should go after him?” Nathan shook his head.

“You go but not me. We’ll be late for English and you know what Mr Cooper is like.” 

Nathan stared at Jake, fighting the tight feeling in his chest and the churning in his stomach. It felt as though an elastic band had been wrapped one too many times around his skull, squeezing his brain too tight for him to think straight. His heart thumped too hard and his palms became unreasonably sweaty. 

The thing that he realised though was that the situation was not impossible. It was a trade: good favour for bad favour. EIther Mr Cooper was “happy” (in the loosest sense of the word) that Nathan was on time and Willie was distraught and alone, or Mr Cooper was annoyed at Nathan’s tardiness but Willie would feel better and not be upset. There was no scenario in which Nathan would truly win.

Not that winning mattered. Not then.

“Tell Mr Cooper I have a stomach ache or something. I have to go find Willie.” Nathan said, his voice a lot clearer and more confident than he thought it would be.

Before Jake could answer he grabbed his bag and ran out of the study hall.

“Well,” Jake spoke to himself. “Okay then.”


	4. Chapter 4

Nathan raced as fast as he could out into the flooded halls, careful not to run or barge in to anyone but also walking really fast so he could catch up to Willie. Knowing his own luck, Nathan supposed that Willie was already miles away or well hidden; and yet Nathan’s determination never wavered as he faced the throngs of students pushing and shoving towards their next class. Nathan threw his bag over his shoulder and held his head up high for a change, craning his neck to see if there was any sign of Willie. He couldn't see any black faux fur or make out the signature wild mop of tousled black hair anywhere in the crowd. It would have been very easy for Nathan to call it quits and just go to class - and at this point he couldn't see any way forward - but Willie was upset and alone. 

Rather idiotically, Nathan planted his feet firmly on the ground in the centre of the hallway. He rooted himself like a tree to the floor, remaining sturdy and unmoving as he waited for the throngs of students to barge past him. With rapid eye movements Nathan scanned the crowd, searching for a single hint of where Willie might be. He racked his brains, trying to think of who Willie hung out with and what they might possibly look like. 

“Who are you looking for?” 

Nathan jumped out of his skin as he looked behind him to the person whisper-shouting in his ear.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.” Jana (Kindness Personified, 17) beamed, nervously stepping back from Nathan's shoulder.

Nathan relaxed and let out a deep breath before smiling at Jana. Out of everyone Nathan had grown up with, Jana was probably the sweetest person he had ever met. From kindergarten to senior year, Jana had always been kind, compassionate and patient. When everyone else decided to more or less ignore Nathan and Jake's existence, Jana still said hello and asked about them every day. Of course she had her own friendship group - she was so nice and got along with everyone so of course she had other friends - which meant she didn't really hang out with Nathan and Jake all that much but it didn't matter. Some days Nathan was just grateful to be seen.

Seeing Jana standing there, Nathan suddenly had a thought.

“I'm looking for Willie. He got upset and ran off before I could make sure he was okay,” Nathan explained. “Have you seen him?”

“Normally when Willie is upset he runs into the nearest bathroom,” Jana shrugged as if this information was common knowledge. “But you didn't hear that from me.”

“Thanks Jana.” Nathan smiled, already scanning the hallway for the nearest boys’ bathroom to the study hall.

“No problem. See you in Trig,” Jana placed a hand on Nathan's shoulder as a goodbye. “Good luck finding Willie. Text me if you need more help.”

Nathan looked back to where Jana had been to say something along the lines of “later” but she had already melted back into the crowd. Behind where she had been standing was a heavy wooden door with the male symbol on it, indicating the boys’ toilets.

Talk about a coincidence.

As Nathan barreled towards the bathroom he briefly considered the possibility of Jana being magic or potentially an apparition. He didn't think long though as when he pushed open the door Nathan was distracted by the sound of voices.

“-fucking fucks! How am I supposed to do this when my brain turns to static after writing for two whole minutes! I don't even-” Willie was ranting.

“Hey, hey,” a voice that Nathan couldn't place replied. “Jacob was a real douchebag but by the sounds of it Nathan will help you.”

Thinking fast, Nathan grabbed the door by the interior handle and slowly shut it, ensuring that it didn’t give him away. As Willie started talking a sense of panicky dread crashed over Nathan. Perhaps he should have just walked straight back out of the bathroom but he felt oddly compelled, not only to stay, but to take a peek around the corner. If he did though then it was possible that Nathan would be immediately spotted and yelled at which was the complete opposite of what he was going for. 

Looking around, Nathan thought hard. Right in front of the door was the wall of the right hand cubicle, graffitied to bits with compass etchings of swear words and sharpied call outs. It created a narrow mini hallway that you rounded to see the urinals on the right hand wall, between the left cubicle and the right, with the sinks and mirrors lining the left hand wall. Depending on where Willie and his friend were standing they might see his reflection straight away or maybe not. Clearly Nathan was overthinking things. 

Ignoring the little voice in the back of his brain that was screaming for him to stop, turn around and leave the bathroom, Nathan inched forward until he could see the mirror and the reflection within it. Willie had his back to the sink wall as he spoke to none other than Matt (Math Joke Pro, 18). There was no mistaking the chiseled arms, blonde hair, and goofy grinning package wrapped up in a Porfo's Prep Wrestling Team sports jacket. Immediately Nathan shrank back, listening once more to the conversation in lieu of deciding what to do next. 

“Look, if you don't want Nathan's help then I could always go over to your place again and give you a hand.” Matt said casually.

“Ugh, no, my mum would love that. You know she thinks we're friends?” Willie sounded more than a little displeased by this.

“Of course we're friends. Platonic friends.” Matt laughed.

“Yeah… platonic friends…” Willie trailed off.

Nathan suddenly became hot and bothered, worried he was intruding on something that maybe he definitely shouldn't be privy to. Not knowing what else to do, he backed up to the door and just walked right out. The number of students in the hallway had significantly reduced, giving Nathan time to mull over his next action. Ultimately, there was nothing for it. He was already going to be a little bit late to class so he may as well go and say what he had to say. Turning around, Nathan went back in to the bathroom, this time announcing himself by calling out.

“Willie? Are you in here?”

“Go away Nathan!” Willie called out, not sounding as harsh as usual.

Nathan paused, opened his mouth, closed it again, hummed, and then finally gathered up the courage to say “No, not until I’ve spoken with you.”

Hovering for only a moment longer, Nathan charged around the corner to find Willie standing alone at the sink washing his hands. Behind him Matt was at the urinal, acting completely oblivious to the scene happening behind him.  Nathan resisted the temptation to shake his head, instead thinking about clearing the jumbled thoughts from his mind rather than looking weird and provoking unwarranted attacks.

“Look,” Nathan started, standing next to Willie and addressing him with an abnormally high level of confidence. “Jacob was a bit of a butt back there. You shouldn’t have to do the homework alone. That said, I still don’t know what the homework is but if you come to my house after school we can figure it out together.”

Willie gave Nathan a long, hard stare, his eyes narrowing to mere slits. The prolonged gaze made Nathan squirm on the spot but he held fast, trying his best not to lose his confidence. 

“Fine,” Willie said. “Meet me in front of the school gates then.” 

Without a further word, Willie threw a last sneaky glance towards Matt using the bathroom mirror and then Willie flounced out of the bathroom. Dumbstruck by his success, Nathan stood rooted to the spot, only to be woken from his mini trance by the school bell ringing, signalling that he was about to be very late to English.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I would like to @sonicscrewdriv3 on Twitter for typing up half of this chapter. They are a gift and I am extremely grateful for their help.
> 
> Second, it is important to note that, going forward, the family units in this story are not intended to resemble the real life families of the Drawfee crew (perhaps with the exception of Julia's slightly). This is because my story is a work of fiction so for narrative purposes there will be differences. Additionally I do not know enough, nor do I want to violate boundaries regarding, the crew's real family structures to replicate real life. 
> 
> Finally, I'm sorry.

"Look all I’m saying is that, in terms of Lego Franchises, Bionicle was massively underrated. Despite its immense popularity with young boys, Lego Ninjago may have a long running TV show and a movie but that must be because of all the money Lego can just throw at the Franchise due to extreme product overpricing. Ninjago can never be as popular as Bionicle because it doesn’t have the 14-18 year old demographic as the style is too childish vs the cool ass designs of Bionicle.”

Nathan listened to Jake’s argument intently as the pair walked out of the massive oak doors of St Porfos Prep. Around them kids pushed and shoved forwards and backwards the get where they needed to be at the end of the school day, but the pair of friends weren't in any particular rush to get home that day.

“But Bionicle was just ‘what if Transformers but without the cars and also lego?’ Ninjas are cooler than knock off transformers, it’s just a fact.” Nathan responded innocently, vailing his sly smile as he watched Jake began to bluster in his peripheral vision.

As Jake tried to put aside his initial nerd rage Nathan scanned the crowds for Willie. They were on the side wall leading up to the school gate now, right alongside the chain link fence that bordered the sports field. Nathan glanced over to the field and quickly saw the lacrosse team were practicing. It was Thursday after school so of course they were practicing. There was a sinking feeling in Nathan’s stomach and he started to quicken his step but it was too late.

“Hey Yaffe! Yaffe!” Nathan heard Caldwell’s shout over the ocean of student voices. Although he kept his head down and eyes to the ground, Nathan could still see Caldwell jogging parallel to him on the other side of the fence.

“Yaffe I just want to talk for a second!” Caldwell called. “Come on man I know you can hear me. Just stop for a second _please_!”

Nathans heart raced. His head felt light and dizzy as a crushing sensation increased his ribcage.His hands turned red as Nathan balled them up into tight, trembling fists. The short bitten stubs of his nails burrowed themselves into Nathan’s palm creating red crescents that threatened to burst with blood. His stomach churned in a way that felt like it was drowning itself. His eyes burned, threatening to well up with tears every time Caldwell shouted his last name. It was a miracle he managed to keep walking with legs that felt like lead.

“ _NATHAN YAFFE YOU GREAT BIG DING DONG WILL YOU JUST STOP AND TALK TO ME PLEASE?_ ” Caldwell bellowed as Nathan moved beyond a point where he could follow.

The burning sensation of a million students stopping to stare at him and Caldwell seared through Nathan’s skin but it did not deter or slow him. He could feel bumps as he barged past people but the damage was already done so nothing else mattered.

“What the heck was that about” Willie hissed, falling into step with Nathan and Jake as they walked on through the mostly motionless now whispering crowd.

“Caldwell and Nathan haven’t spoke since that incident in fifth grade. Nathan’s still really upset about how things went down so we don’t speak about it.” Jake hissed.

“But they seemed okay with each other in class?” Willie asked, confused.

“Yeah because Mr Wilson was there. Group projects suck because you have to work with people that hate you. They’ve been in more projects together than either of them would have probably liked over the years but Nathan learnt real quick to squash his emotions for the sake of a grade. Outside of school talk is totally off limits though so whatever Caldwell has to say must be real important to break the rules.” Jake explained.

“Ooooooooh” Willie dragged out the noise of understanding before shutting up.

Although Willie did not fully understand he was able to empathise with Nathan in a way he suspected Jake couldn’t. Being hurt by someone in a way that shakes your entire sense of being right down to the foundation of who you are as a person was a sensation that Willie was unfortunately all too familiar with. The way others’ opinions of you can eat away at your confidence was a topic that Willie’s mind explored in every dull moment. He could imagine what was racing through Nathan’s head at that very moment and it was not pleasant in the least. It was for this reason that Willie remained quiet for the entirety of the short walk to Nathan's house.  

Nathan walked slightly ahead of the other two boys, his feet on autopilot as he led them to his home. He didn’t even notice the silence as Willie scrolled through his phone, a single earbud hanging out of his ear, while Jake aimlessly looked around, his thoughts in a completely different realm.

In reality, Nathan knew he needed more time than the ten minutes it usually took to walk from the school gates to his front yard to recover from the incident that had just occurred. He just didn’t have that kind of time. There were too many emotions to process in such a short span of time. With the additional pressure of Willie’s presence, plus the mystery homework he still hadn’t had a chance to look up yet, the only course of action left to Nathan was to squash any and all emotion into a figurative glass bottle to then bury deep within the back of his mind. Of course he wouldn’t leave it there to fester, however it was best to contemplate these things when it was dark and he was alone with nothing but his thoughts.

“This is where you live?” Willie asked, dragging Nathan into reality.

“Yeah, why?” Nathan asked, extremely self-conscious all of a sudden.

Nathan looked up at his house. It was nothing to brag about. The modest, three bedroom house in the suburbs with a garage tucked neatly to the side was hardly any different to any other house on the street. In fact, it was identical to the houses on both sides, sporting the same sandy yellow paint with a white front door.

“It is exactly the kind of place I expected you to live and honestly I’m slightly disappointed.” Willie shrugged.

Nathan’s shoulders sagged a little with relief. He knew Willie meant nothing by this remark so he quickly brushed it off.

The trio of boys walked up the front garden path to the front door. Nathan stopped and patted down his pockets in a search for his keys. Unable to feel them, he sighed and began to dig around in his pockets. This caused Jake to grin smugly.

“Step aside, mortal.” Jake proclaimed grandly, sweeping past Nathan to unlock the front door with a key that sat in one of the many pockets of his cargo shorts, attached to a belt loop via a silver chain.

“Why do you have a key for Nathan’s house?” Willie asked, wrinkling his face a little.

“Partly for reasons like this, but mainly for this,” Jake winked over his shoulder at Willie before opening the door and calling out. “MAMA YAFFE! WE’RE HOME!”

There was a soft clang and a splash from the end of the hallway where a door stood open to reveal a view of the kitchen. Willie looked vaguely alarmed as he hovered back by the door whereas Jake moved forward expectantly. Nathan tried to hide his bashful look by hanging up his jacket as his mother practically stampeded out of the kitchen to greet them.

“Nathan! Jake! You’re home!” She cried, pulling a boy with each arm into a hug.

Mama Yaffe (Stay At Home Mama Bear, 45) looked rather like a pear-bear in terms of her rounded figure, the slight fuzz of hair over her arms and legs, and with white mottled skin instead of green. She had large, warm green eyes and a lot of ginger curls gathered on top of her head. Her smile was simply radiant and she smelt inexplicably like pasta sauce. Her arms was squishy but strong, picking up and setting down her son and his friend with ease.

“Hey Mama Yaffe.” Jake choked out,, wheezing as he regained his balance.

“Moooooooom stop! You’re embarrassing me!” Nathan whined, noticing Willie trying to keep a straight face by the door.

“Sorry sweetie,” Nathan’s mother apologised with a shrug. “But you know I can’t help myself. This house is so creepy when I’m home all day by myself.”

“That’s probably because it’s haunted. Most suburb houses are.” Willie replied casually.

“You’re probably right!” Mama Yaffe chuckled. “ You must be Willie. Nathan told me you were coming.”

Willie looked somewhat confused, prompting Nathan to mumble. “I text her at lunch to make sure you could come over.”

“You did. You’re such a good boy. Now snacks are in the kitchen and your brother is doing his ICT homework in the office so you boys will probably want to go hide from me in Nathan’s room.” Mama Yaffe replied merrily.

“Thanks Mom,” Nathan spoke hurriedly. “This way.” He gestured for Willie to follow him before shooting up the stairs.

Willie nodded and muttered something along the lines of “it’s nice to meet you” before following Nathan to the upper floor. Behind them Nathan could hear Jake quizzing his mother on the nature of the snacks in the kitchen which was fine. He normally did that when they got home from school and the twenty or so minutes he would inevitably spend chatting to her would give Nathan and WIllie time to get comfortable and set up.

Nathan’s room was, in Nathan’s opinion, much like his house in the fact that it was completely average for a boy his age. The walls were a light blue, as they had been for well over a decade, with a couple of posters up on the walls and a handful of shelves. He had books and CDs and DVDs and blu-rays to go in his small TV that stood on his desk besides a busted up old PC his dad had fixed up for him. Grey bed sheets were sloppily made on the bed and dirty clothes were thrown more around than inside of the hamper in the corner of his room.

On top of his chest of drawers was a series of cards arranged in a very specific order. Willie inspected a skeletal cat on the top line of cards, noting that a muscle only and then fleshy, albeit hairless, version of the same card on the two rows below it. There were many creatures like that,mainly dinosaurs from the looks of things, all with different numbers and words on the cards that didn’t particularly mean anything to Willie although he did very much enjoy the gross art style.

“What’s this?” He asked Nathan pointedly, inspected what might have been a Hydra skeleton next to the cat.

“Oh, just some Ploops. Jake and I started a game this morning.” Nathan shrugged, dumping his backpack on the bed.

“Some what?” Willie asked, squinting at the cards to look for an artist name or a brand or something that was more helpful than the garbage Nathan had just told him.

“Ploops. It’s a card game, kinda like Pokémon but with skeletons and stuff. The art is real gross but also really cool and the game mechanics are fun and easy to understand. Jake and I got sick of playing Yu-Gi-Oh and the guy at the store recommended this as we’re too poor to get into Magic the Gathering.” Nathan explained. “Basically, you build a creature to fight with from the skeleton up.”

“Nerd.” Willie teased, making a note of the game on his phone.

“Yeah but it’s fun.” Nathan shrugged again, moving over to boot up his computer.

“Fair enough.” Willie replied.

He stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, not sure where to look or what to touch. His bag was still slung over one shoulder, something Nathan couldn’t help but notice.

“If you want to dump your bag and coat on the bed, that’s cool,” Nathan offered helpfully. “You can sit in Jake’s chair.”

Nathan pulled out a second swivel chair for Willie to sit in. He didn’t seem quite comfortable but Nathan hoped that, as the time went on, he would feel more at ease.

“So, about this homework then…”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to @mxcrappy, @jana_januar and @Ghostrot 12343 for proof reading this chapter!

One would think that for a high school with a name that sounded as prestigious as Saint Porfo’s Prep that lunchtime would be a civilised ordeal. The words conjured images of students in pristine uniforms sitting along long mahogany tables underneath a ceiling mural in an oak paneled dining room. The expectation definitely implied some strong Hogwarts imagery, where everyone chatted politely to their neighbours using calm, indoor voices between eating restaurant quality food.

And yet, the first thing Nathan saw when he walked into the cafeteria was a  jock stand up on a crappy round plastic table and launch his sloppy joe across the room directly into the midst of a gaggle of subsequently screaming freshman girls. Any notion of calm and civilised was left at the door and replaced with a caricature of a high school, where pencils were impaled on the gray crusty ceilings and stains frequented more surfaces than a single team of janitors could clean in one night. The windows were small and high up, letting in the smallest amount of natural light and air possible. To make up for this, the fluorescent lights shone far too bright for such an off-white room, blinding Nathan as he scanned the throng of teens in front of him for any sign of Jake. 

The chorus of students talking and yelling and simply existing all seemed to mash together, growing into a thunderous roar that reverberated inside Nathan's skull. Nathan’s heart began to race but he gulped down any fear. No one ever noticed him so the stress he could feel creeping up behind him was unwarranted.

“Nathan, you look like a deer caught in headlights.” 

There was a light chuckle from beside Nathan that caused him to practically jump out of his skin. He looked to the source of the sound and saw that two steps to his right Amanda (Yearbook Editor, 18) was halfway up a ladder, hanging up some sort of poster by herself.

“Oh hey, Amanda, right?” Nathan asked sheepishly, drifting closer to her in a failing attempt to play it cool. 

“Very funny Nathan. I know you know who I am. Everyone knows who I am because the principal is a butt.” Amanda kept her tone lighthearted but there was an underlying seriousness to her words. 

Of course Nathan recognised her from English and also his Computing class but more specifically, from an assembly at the start of the year. Principal Vour had unexpectedly dragged her up on stage and introduced her as the head of the yearbook team in front of the entire school. The whole experience had had Nathan dying of second hand embarrassment as poor Amanda looked incredibly shaken and upset by the clearly unprecedented act. Jake had written several letters of complaint both as a student and on Amanda’s behalf but still, Nathan and Amanda had never spoken directly. In fact Nathan was certain that Amanda had never even looked in his general direction before. Clearly he was wrong. 

“Yeah. So when- Um. Did-” Nathan paused and took a deep breath. “How do you know my name?”

“Well, we’ve been in the same school for the past four years… plus we have class together… plus plus it’s my job to know everybody’s name.” Amanda huffed as she spoke, stretching out her arm to pin the farthest corner of the poster to the wall.

Nathan quickly grabbed the ladder as it began to move and steadied it. 

“Oh yeah, the yearbook. How’s that going?” Nathan’s voice broke a little as he gulped. 

He could feel his face burning hotter than molten tomato soup as he tried to look anywhere but up. Amanda was wearing jeans and, while he wasn’t interested in her that way, it was all too easy to be labelled as a creep. His knuckles turned red as he tightly gripped the ladder, hoping that the situation would be over soon. Much to Nathan’s relief, Amanda seemed to be done as she started to climb down the ladder.

“Well it’s going okay but we can’t really play with layouts properly until after Picture Day. Thank goodness it’s not too far away.” Amanda smiled brightly.

Once her feet were firmly planted on the floor Nathan stepped back. As Amanda began to pack down the ladder it revealed a large red poster with a funky camera design on it and the words “PICTURE DAY” scrawled neatly across the top in large yellow letters. Nathan scanned the poster for the date and felt his stomach drop as he saw just how close it was.

“Oh jeez, that is soon,” He chuckled nervously. “Is there like a dress code or something?”

“Not really but you only get to take the photo once so maybe wear something nice?” 

Amanda’s words hung in the air for a moment too long, leaving Nathan feeling nauseous as he subtly tried to look down at his clothes. 

“Not that you aren’t wearing anything nice right now but - god, I’m sorry - I suck. You look fine - good even - but I just, um, meant that if you wanted to then maybe you could wear your best clothes or your favourite shirt or something? Wow, shit, I’m making a mess of this aren’t I? Have you started the English homework?” Amanda rambled, her face turning as red as Nathan’s.

Nathan fidgeted, tugging the edge of his baggy, crumpled flannel shirt down as his brain tried to catch up with the speed of Amanda’s words. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Amanda retreat slightly behind dark waves of hair that cascaded down her head and he found himself wishing that he had a similar way to hide his own embarrassed look. It was the perfect disguise for Amanda: cute and natural. The only downside was that Nathan could never be able to pull of having long hair without looking like some douchey hipster.

“Um, no, not yet. I’m really behind on homework lately. It’s the script conversion, right?” Nathan shuffled uncomfortably. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what work of fiction to do. I think I might do Sunny June as I really like that novel but maybe I might do a piece of fanfiction to keep things interesting?” Amanda relaxed a little, allowing Nathan to do the same.

“Fanfiction seems like a good idea but I don’t know, I-” Nathan began.

Quickly he trailed off as he noticed Jacob and Julia skulking around the outer edge of the cafeteria. They were practically hugging the wall, keeping their heads down but their lips were moving almost as if they were trying to mutter a spell of invisibility or something. They had donned black caps in place of their usual beanies, hiding their eyes but Nathan knew it was them. Julia’s long blonde hair was a dead give away, as were the rips across the knees of Jacob’s jeans.

“I’m so sorry Amanda, I’ve just seen my art group and I have a question to ask them. Catch up later?” Nathan rushed.

Amanda barely got out her reply before Nathan had impulsively rushed off towards Jacob and Julia. There was a nagging voice at the back of his head that he knew would make him regret the entire interaction with Amanda but he tried his best to ignore it as he charged forwards. Instead he ran over what he was going to say to Jacob about being mean to Willie the day before but his mind was just drawing up blanks.

As Nathan got closer, Julia and Jacob looked up at him. Their eyes locked with Nathan’s, one set expressing dead indifference and the other mild panic. Without a word to one another the duo broke into a run, barrelling towards the cafeteria exit. 

“Hey guys! Wait up!” Nathan called, changing course to follow them. 

Ahead of him, Jacob and Julia crashed through the doors, knocking a bunch of band kids flying with their haste. Nathan slowed down as he approached the fallen musicians, contemplating whether or not to stop and help. In a split second Nathan decided to pause and help up a freshman whose glasses were falling off of his face. Once his conscience had been settled and the  kid was back on his feet Nathan shot off again, sidestepping through the chaos to burst through the cafeteria doors himself.

Out in the hallway there were three directions Jacob and Julia could have gone. Nathan whipped his head around and just caught a glimpse of them running off to the right. He could even hear the rubber of their shoes squeaking on the laminate tiles as they ran, making it easier to chase them. Nathan immediately began to follow, still much slower than them in case there were any teachers about. As much as he wanted to catch them, Nathan would also rather avoid getting caught himself. It was kind of like an Assassin’s Creed mission the more he thought about it. 

As the thought struck him, Nathan tried to predict where they might be going. The possibilities seemed endless because they could always loop back around or just hide in a closet or something. Hallway after hallway, turn after turn, too many variables for Nathan to compute. When he ended up following Jacob and Julia out of a side door, Nathan didn’t even really comprehend what he was doing. It wasn’t until he stood on the edge of the parking lot, watching Jacob hop into the driver’s seat of an old pick-up and drive away that he even realised where he was.

  
  


All alone on the sidewalk in front of the main school gates, Nathan stared blankly into the carpark. A light breeze blew an empty packet of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos across the tarmac and tousled Nathan’s hair. In the distance there the sound of cars floated over the empty sports field. The world felt empty and quiet. For a fleeting moment Nathan closed his eyes and he let go of the hurt and the frustration welling up inside of him to simply let himself exist in the moment.

 

From behind him, a large, meaty hand sliced through the air to slam into Nathan’s shoulder, nearly dislocating it. Nathan cried out in a mixture of shock and pain as his knees buckled. Looking up, Nathan saw the smooth bald head of Coach Hank (Wrestling Coach and Unofficial Head of Security, no way of telling his age - his skin is too smooth) glistening in the sunlight.

“Trying to sneak out of school at lunchtime Yaffe?” Coach Hank asked smugly. “You're in big trouble now you chunky stud.”

“But- but- I wasn’t-” Nathan stammered weakly.

“Oh, trying to be a smart guy huh? Let's just see what the principal has to say about this.” Coach Hank scowled.

Picking him up as though he didn’t weigh a thing, Coach Hank set Nathan back on his feet and  frog marched him back inside. As they headed towards the principal's office Nathan didn't say a word. No one listened to him anyway.


	7. Chapter 7

It was not the first time Nathan had been humiliated at school. It was, however, the second worst embarrassing school related experience he had been through, and perhaps the first time a teacher had been responsible for his shame. 

Coach Hank kept his large and heavy hand firmly on Nathan's shoulder as he paraded his charge through the slowly crowding hallways. Lunch had only really just started and as students flocked to their lockers it was easy for them to be pause and gawk at Nathan's misfortune. 

Although he hung his head low in defeat - mainly to avoid the nauseating stares of his peers - Nathan noticed one person in particular during his walk of shame. As Hank pushed him past the stairs, Nathan looked up and caught Caldwell's eye. Without his glasses to hide his expression it was easy to see that Caldwell has locked on to him, not that Nathan kept eye contact for long. It was just enough time to see Caldwell's puzzled look and all of his friends in matching letterman jackets sniggering beside him as  they crowded up the stairwell. 

“Hey, what’s the matter with  _ Hugh _ ?” One of the lads jeered, nudging Caldwell in the ribs with his elbow. 

The sniggers from the jocks turned into fully fledged laughter

It was an image burned into his brain and more than enough to process during the rest of the humiliating march to Nathan’s unjust punishment.

 

The principal's office was absurdly bright for such a drab person. The exposed cinder block walls were painted over with a bright powder blue colour usually reserved for newborn boys. Large square windows flanked the principal’s birch desk, letting sunlight stream in through white slat blinds to illuminate the vase of yellow trumpet daffodils standing smartly to attention to one side. 

Principal Vour (Evil, Eternal) sat directly behind this desk, partially concealed by the hulking twin computer monitors that formed a sort of barricade to his right. His pale skin glistened with sweat, even underneath the tuft of straw hair perched precariously at the forefront of his otherwise bald head. His cheeks were bloated and rosy despite his still seemingly slender body, making Nathan think that his principal was a person on the brink of gaining a lot of weight. He had never seen the principal eat, however Nathan had overheard the rumours that Principal Vour would eat just about anything and a lot of it. 

As Coach Hank reeled off his speech about how Nathan was a no-good layabout who was clearly trying to skip out on school, the office door burst open and Nathan’s mom strode in, bristling slightly as she glared directly at the two men in the office. 

“Mrs Yaffe, come in.” Principal Vour forced a smile so unnatural it made Nathan’s skin crawl. 

“Principal Vore.” Mrs Yaffe nodded coldly, coming to stand behind Nathan and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Um, actually it’s pronounced  _ Vour  _ \- like  _ power _ or  _ tower _ . Not  _ “Vore”  _ as in  _ Four. _ ” Principal Vour said tentatively.

“So  _ Vour  _ as in  _ flower _ , not  _ Vore  _ as in  _ snore _ ?” Mrs Yaffe repeated slowly and deliberately.

“That’s it.” The principal seemed quite pleased.

“Okay, so Principal Vore,” Mrs Yaffe continued as if the conversation had never happened, causing Nathan to snigger.

“Watch it, Yaffe.” Coach Hank snarled.

“I will not have you talking to my son that way! He shouldn’t be in here, this whole ordeal is ludicrous!” Mrs Yaffe snarled back.

“I disagree. Your son is nothing but a troublemaker-” Coach Hank rebutted.

“A troublemaker? A  _ troublemaker _ ? You over sized bully, I’ll have you reported to the district council just because you get your thrills from embarrassing young kids like some sort of-” Mrs Yaffe began to rant.

Nathan shrunk smaller in his seat. In part he was glad his mom had been called as it was clear she wasn’t going to let Coach Hank strut all over the situation. At the same time he couldn’t stand the yelling and he was embarrassed that he needed his mom to defend him in the first place at all. It was all a bit much really, especially as the voices around him escalated higher and higher as each adult made a bid to be heard above the others. 

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” The principal bellowed, causing the water in the daffodil vase to ripple and tremble. 

Both Mrs Yaffe and Coach Hank stopped speaking, each trembling furiously. Nathan was pretty sure he could see the veins popping through Coach Hank’s slippery smooth forehead, pulsating as the blood rushed into his brain. 

“Nathan, if you could just take a seat outside for a moment please. Coach Hank, your mother and I will sit down and discuss your… innocence in here for a moment.” Principal Vour spoke slowly, deliberately choosing every single word.

“Don’t you want to hear the story from my point of view?” Nathan asked bravely, his voice trembling as he mustered up the courage to even respond to the principal. 

“That won’t be necessary, thank you.” Principal Vour replied in a very dismissive tone. 

Nathan stood up from his seat, eyes straight down at the floor to avoid his mother’s seething gaze, and walked out of the principal’s office without another word. 

The waiting room was a much duller shade of blue that might have looked the same as the principal’s office, had the walls not been buried beneath thousands of student flyers, some of which were rumoured to be fifty years old. The wizened old PA in her salmon pink shawl and beady spectacles sat at an even older monitor in the corner, cocooned by large green filing cabinets. Chairs had been crammed along every available space lining the cluttered walls, with a single coffee table squeezed into the middle of the room. Nathan was pretty sure there were more ring shaped brown stains on the desk than students in the school. 

Nathan slumped down in a seat fairly close to the Principal's now shut door. He stretched out his legs and looked at the worn and fraying black canvas shoes he usually wore. They probably need replacing but Nathan couldn't spot any holes yet, and with his mom being in the principal's office, Nathan figured it was probably not a good time to bring the fact up.

“Hey.” 

Nathan's head snapped up to see he wasn’t alone with the PA in the waiting room after all. Sat by the door was a girl Nathan vaguely recalled seeing around the school before. She had a halo of  frizzy walnut hair and a wicked grin. She clutched a large cardboard box with perfectly circular air holes lining the top of each side. By her foot was a green backpack covered in various zoo-themed patches. Nathan had to shake his head and blink several times as he could have sworn that the backpack wriggled in a way that suggested something had made its home in there.

“My name’s Sarah. I’m eighteen and I love animals.” Sarah grinned at Nathan.

“Hey, I’m Nathan,” he replied, leaning forward in his seat. “I've um- I've not seen you around here before.”

“I'm new. It's my first day.” Sarah smiled. There was a comforting look in her eyes. 

“Do they, um, do they send new kids to the principal's office?” Nathan tried to sound casual about it.

“I don't think so? But apparently I'm supposed to part with this box and that's not gonna happen.” Sarah's grip on the box tightened but her smile never faltered.

“Am I allowed to ask what's in the box?” Nathan leaned forward even more, switching his gaze between the box and the bag that was definitely moving at Sarah's feet. 

“Come here.” Sarah beckoned Nathan over.

Nathan hesitated but decided to go for it. The PA wasn't going to tell him off for talking to the new girl, and even if she did, it was unlikely that his current situation could get any worse. He stood up and planted himself in the seat next to Sarah, watching intently as she gleefully opened her box. Reaching inside, Sarah pulled out a small green lizard the size of her palm. It looked Nathan up and down before scuttling up Sarah's arm onto her shoulder, reminding Nathan of that little chameleon-gecko thing from Tangled.

“So this first friend is called Bracket. I think it's a boy lizard? I'm not sure of the species yet, I haven't had the time to look it up but we love this crawly friend.” Sarah smiled.

“H-hi Bracket.” Nathan raised his hand a little to wave but thought better of it and put it back down again. 

“Also in the box is a bearded dragon. I've named them Izzy. That's a good name for a dragon, right?” Sarah tilted the box ever so slightly to show Izzy to Nathan.

The scaly lizard was asleep on its belly. Nathan could see its back moving up and down steadily with each breath. It was so peaceful and somewhat adorable in a desert creature kind of way. 

“My brother had a teddy that was a bee and he called that Izzy,” Nathan began to reminisce but he caught Sarah's curious eye and became flustered. “But it's a great name for a bearded dragon too. The perfect name I would say.”

“Thanks,” Sarah beamed. 'I sure hope the principal finishes up soon. I gotta get these guys home.” 

“Yeah, how did they end up in the box in the first place? If you don't mind me asking that is. I just thought that lizards need special tanks or something and-” Nathan began to ramble a little bit but he quickly stopped himself.

“These critters were in the science labs but their cages were far too small and the teacher wouldn't set them to the right temperature. I fished them out to take them to my car - I've got the perfect tank for them already set up at home with lots of room and real plants from nature for them to live in - when the damn science lady dragged me in here because apparently I'm 'stealing school property’ or whatever but it's not really stealing if I'm rescuing animals who are being mistreated.” Sarah wanted, her voice getting increasingly heated with each word.

Nathan was a little taken aback by her passion but it was also cool to see someone feel so strongly about something real. He wanted to tell her this but it might come off as creepy or an attempted pass and Nathan didn't want his words to be misinterpreted so kept his mouth firmly shut.

“I'm sorry, I just get so mad.” Sarah apologized, nuzzling up to Bracket on her shoulder.

“Don't worry about it,” Nathan shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. It was a bit sweaty. “So do you have another lizard in your backpack or something? Because I'm pretty sure I saw it move just now.”

Sarah smiled once more and held out her palm flat. Bracket scuttled into it and patiently waited as Sarah deposited him back into the box. She firmly closed the lid and placed the box safely on the chair beside her before leaning forward and unzipping her backpack. Nathan leaned forward too to see Sarah reveal a young tabby cat in Sarah's bag.

“This is my family cat, King Kartoon. Isn't he wonderful?” Sarah asked, cooing at the cat.

Reaching in, she fiddled with the crown pendant on King Kartoon's collar and stroked behind his ears. A warm purring sound filled the waiting room that filled Nathan with a sense of comfort and ease. 

“Awwww.” Nathan beamed.

Behind him he heard the handle of the principal's office door rattle. Quick as a whip, Sarah zipped her backpack shut again and sat up straight. Nathan scrambled back to his original seat just in time for the door to fly open and his mother to storm out.

“I don't care that it's lunch time,” Mrs Yaffe snarled. “He's my son and I'm taking him home until this- this-  _ clown  _ has calmed down enough to apologize to the pair of us! Come on Nathan, we're leaving.”

Nathan looked from his mother, who was already across the waiting room, to Sarah,  then back to Coach Hank, who stood seething in the doorway. Nathan's stomach crumpled into a ball and began to bounce around, causing Nathan to feel incredibly queasy. An elastic band felt like it had wrapped itself around Nathan's brain, making the room spin around him.

“Mom, maybe I-” Nathan choked out but his throat felt like sandpaper.

“Nathan, please come with me to the car.” His mother lost all trace of aggression as she addressed her son, setting Nathan slightly more at ease.

“Okay.” Nathan shrugged and tried really hard to keep it casual but he felt himself swaying on the spot.

Quickly Nathan hurried over to his mom and followed her out of the room. Before he passed through the door he caught Sarah's eye. She gave him an encouraging nod which almost negated all of the sniggers and stares that followed as Nathan walked out of the school with his mother. 

Almost, but not quite.


	8. Chapter 8

Things were quiet in the Yaffe household at dinner time that Friday night. The single, low-hanging lampshade that illuminated the centre of the dining table made the edges of the room feel overly dark, much like the shadows being cast across the stoic faces of Nathan’s kid brother and mom. The hum of the oven cooling down in the next room never bothered Nathan up until this point, however as it was paired with the ticking of an ancient grandfather clock and the scraping of metal on porcelain, it felt threatening. If the hum stopped then mama Yaffe would round on* Nathan for having to rescue him from the principal’s office. Nathan knew it deep down in the pit of his stomach. The oven was the real timer, its noise was the only thing keeping his mother from exploding.

There was a sour taste in Nathan’s mouth that he couldn’t get rid of, no matter how much food he ate. His throat felt dry and everything just seemed to have the texture of pre-chewed cardboard. The fork in Nathan’s hand felt heavy as he pushed some asparagus around the sides of his plate. All he was doing was biding his time. A good scolding was imminent. He could feel it.

“Nathan, sweetie, please eat your vegetables.” Nathan’s mother sighed, looking over from her own plate.

“I ate my potatoes. They’re a vegetable.” Nathan muttered, not looking up from the asparagus on his plate.

Nathan’s mom sighed but she didn’t say anything in response. Nathan wondered if she felt tired or perhaps ill. Slyly he looked at her from the side of his eye,careful not to full on stare lest he set her off. There were no dark circles under her eyes, although she was staring at her plate with a look on her face that Nathan couldn’t quite place. Before he could analyse any further, there was a soft click from the kitchen as the humming of the oven stopped.

“May I be excused?” Nathan asked hurriedly.

He didn’t even wait for a response. Quick as a whip, he was standing from his seat. He grabbed his plate and scraped the leftovers into the special bucket his mother kept to compost their food waste. Turning on the hot tap to full blast, Nathan caught himself with the spray as he scrubbed his plate clean. A final slam dunk and the plate was in the drying rack and Nathan was halfway up the stairs before his mother could think to protest. Once in his room, Nathan locked the door behind him and just launched himself on to the bed.

WIth his face buried in his pillow, Nathan was sorely tempted to sleep and make all his problems go away. The only issue with that plan, that he could see, was that he wouldn’t be asleep long enough for all of his issues to resolve themselves. What he really needed was something temporary but more long term, like a coma. A coma would cost his family a small fortune in medical bills though, so finally Nathan sat up to Google whether or not humans were capable of hibernation. He had an inkling in the back of his mind that he wasn’t able to hibernate, however if there was just the faintest glimmer of hope that he could sleep for a few months and then graduate then it was definitely worth investigating.

Dragging himself to his feet, Nathan stumbled over to the computer and found himself logging into World of Warcraft instead of Googling his dumb idea. Of course humans couldn’t hibernate, that was just common knowledge and a ridiculous suggestion. To think that someone over at Google Analytics would have seen his dumb search and then laughed and showed it to all their coworkers made Nathan want to vomit. The only way to squash that feeling was to completely zone out and trade reality for a virtual multiplayer world where he could stab things and get a small, sweet rush of dopamine every time he got rewarded for it.

Cracking his fingers, Nathan prepared to type in the password to his account when he heard his mother bellow up the stairs.

“NATHAN! THE DOOR!”

Nathan sighed and bashed his head against the desk to vent his frustration. It was a friday night. Jake was with his grandma. There was literally no one in the world who could be at Nathan’s front door in that moment to see him. The only plausible explanation was that it was a rouse, however ignoring his mother was probably a far worse course of action than whatever awaited Nathan at the bottom of the stairs.

Nathan slammed his head upon the desk again and then got up, completely against his better judgement, and went to see who was at the front door. As he passed the mirror on the upstairs landing, Nathan caught sight of his reflection and paused. There was a large red mark on his forehead. Desperately Nathan rubbed at it to reduce the colour but that only seemed to make it brighter. He didn’t want to hear his mother moan and question him over it so Nathan dashed back into his room and got his Pokémon Trainer baseball cap in the hopes that it might conceal the mark.

At the bottom of the stairs the front door was wide open and two people were standing at the door.

“I asked if your friends wanted to come inside but they insisted on standing on the porch.” Mama Yaffe tutted and shook her head as she walked back to the kitchen, leaving Nathan alone with his visitors.

“We’re not sticking around for long.” Julia shrugged, stepping forward dramatically into the light.

“Oh, uh, hi. I didn’t realise you guys knew where I lived.” Nathan scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“We didn’t before but now we do. It was so easy to make your buddy Jake betray your location.” Jacob smirked.

“Be-Betray my location? What-?” Nathan stammered, totally caught off guard by everything that came out of Jacob’s mouth.

“Ignore him,” Julia rolled her eyes and jabbed Jacob in the ribs with her elbows. “We just asked Jake where you lived. He didn’t want to tell us but I showed him some cool tricks with the ninja star I keep stuck to the bottom of my boot and he was all too happy to tell us where you lived. Once he had confirmed that we weren’t on our way to kill you that is. He’s a loyal friend to you, Yaffe.”

“I- Um- Okay…” Nathan shifted his weight nervously from one foot to another. “Jake is a great friend but, um, why are you guys, you know, uh…”

“Here?” Jacob helpfully finished Nathan’s sentence.

“Yeah.” Nathan looked at Julia’s large black boots rather than at their faces.

“We heard you didn’t rat us out to Coach Hank or the principal so we came by to say thanks.” Julia shrugged.

“Yeah, you could have totally given us up to save your own skin and you didn’t which was real cool of you.” Jacob chimed in.

Nathan bit his lip for a moment, debating whether or not to say one of the very many thoughts just steamrolling through his head at that moment. He could have come clean about not getting the chance to snitch on Jacob and Julia. He could have confronted them about being jerks with the homework, making them look at it as a trade type thing. He could have just vomited at their feet because it was a LOT to process having them just show up at his door unannounced. Instead, by some miracle, Nathan managed to hold it together.

“It’s okay. No need for us all to get in trouble.” Nathan replied casually, kicking the carpet and shrugging.

“You’re right. Still, it was cool of you so thanks.” Julia smiled.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

Maybe it was longer than a moment.

It was definitely awkward though.

“I guess I should g-” Nathan started just as Jacob said “So we were wondering if you wanted-”

Nathan may as well have turned into a tomato because he was bright red and full of self-loathing. He didn’t bother opening his mouth again. He wasn’t even sure he was capable of speech anymore.

“So we were wondering if you wanted to come out with us? We’re going to go do this art thing and you seem pretty good at it. You could tag along just this once as our way of saying thanks.” Jacob offered.

Nathan blanched.

“It’s cool. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Julia cut in quickly.

 _Ah, so they don’t actually want me to come_ , Nathan thought to himself. He felt a mixture of disappointment but also relief. There was a lot of guilt and shame and just Big Emotions thrown in there too for good measure. It was overwhelming.

“Thanks but I… I actually have plans. Thanks for inviting me though. I hope you guys have fun. Okay, bye.” Nathan rushed the end of his sentence, shutting the door quickly as Julia began to speak again.

“Who was that honey? What did they want?” Nathan’s mom called from the kitchen.

“No one!” Nathan shouted, running back upstairs.

“But-”

“It was no one.” Nathan repeated to himself quietly as he slammed his bedroom door closed and buried himself under the blanket covers.

Maybe hibernation was a dumb idea but he was going to attempt it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * "To round [up]on" is a British phrase meaning "to make a sudden verbal attack [up]on"


	9. Chapter 9

_ Bang bang bang! _

Nathan groaned, curling up tighter into himself underneath the grey bed sheets. He dragged a pillow over his head and squeezed his eyes tight shut, hoping that if he just stayed still then maybe whatever was outside his door would go away.

_ Bang bang bang! _

No such luck, as Nathan heard another three knocks in rapid succession. Nathan groaned again but still did not move. He took stock of his body, assessing the prickly numbness that engulfed his brain and stretched all the way down to his toes. The bone of Nathan’s skull felt like it had shrunk overnight, squeezing the sides of his brain ruthlessly. Opening his eyes again felt like trying to hold up a closing metal door on a spaceship intent for lockdown. There was a crushing futility to the action that he just did not have the strength, in his body or his heart, to even attempt. Gravity increased on Nathan, pushing him further into the mattress. 

Leaving his bed wasn’t an option.

“Nathan!” Jake’s voice came through the door as he knocked a third time. “It’s nearly eight! Get out of bed! We’re gonna be late.”

Nathan kept his lips pressed together, feeling a sense of dread wash over his tired and aching body. Nightmares of thousands of eyes and the echoing laughter of his peers had been plaguing him whilst awake and asleep over the course of the weekend. Not even the clashing of swords and the shrieking of beasts in World of Warcraft with his cousins over the weekend had been enough to drown out the distorted memories of the previous Friday.

“I don’t want to go.” Nathan called back, his voice barely reaching Jake through the door.

“Nathan, I had to wake up and get ready for school at quarter to six in the morning because we live in a corrupt country with a broken education system that can’t find it possible to push the start of school back by an hour to improve the overall health of their students. I then received my weekly offering of funds from my mother, who I only see maybe once a day because Capitalism is so rampant that she has to prioritise being paid over caring for her offspring, and walked my chubby, sweaty butt _all_ _the way here_ for you to just tell me you _DON’T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL_? Nu-uh, that is not going to fly this morning. I don’t want to go to school either but here I am.” Jake bristled, knocking on the door again.

Nathan felt guilty but the weight of his brain kept him firmly planted on the mattress.

“Mental Health Day.” Nathan shouted back.

“Ah, shit, say no more then my dude. Catch you later?” Jake immediately dropped all traces of annoyance and anger from his voice.

“Yeah, sorry dude.” Nathan called back, his eyes feeling so heavy again already.

“It’s- don’t worry about it Nathan. You just feel better, ‘kay?” Jake replied, his heart feeling heavy.

There was a mumbled “M’kay” back from Nathan and then silence. He was already back to sleep.

-

Nathan woke up when the sun was high in the sky, its bright light filtering in through a gap in his curtains. While his body felt like it had been hit with a truck, there was the feeling of a weight having been lifted from his brain that made it possible for him to sit up and look around. It was clear at some point that his mother had been in the room, as all of his models were dust free and lined up neatly in their dynamic poses. His clean clothes were folded neatly on his desk chair, a tray of sandwiches and water balanced on top.

Stretching out, Nathan sighed and grabbed his phone. There were a bunch of texts from Jake, which was unusual. After a moment of staring at the screen, Nathan’s eyes finally focused and allowed him to read.

_ So everyone is asking me if you’re expelled. _

_ I told them no, of course. _

_ But then Mima pointed out you weren’t in class on Friday afternoon. _

_ And all the teachers are asking where you are. _

_ San thought you were dead, which is ridiculous. _

_ I mean, I thought I heard you through the door this morning. _

_ Now I’m doubting everything. _

_ Please respond to this message confirming that 1) you are alive; and, 2) you are not expelled. _

_ Nathan, please respond. _

_ If you are dead do I get all your mini figures? _

_ Also please don’t be dead. _

Even in his barely awake state, Nathan could kind of see the humour in the whole situation. The people at his school could be a little silly sometimes, but then maybe that was just a general teenager thing. It could have been funny, and if it was another day Nathan might have even chuckled as he text Jake back, but the dark cloud of his experience last Friday only served to twist Nathan’s stomach into a series of tight knots. 

_ I’m alive and not expelled as far as I know? Guess we’ll find out when I show up to school tomorrow :P _

Nathan waited a moment but there was no immediate reply. Not knowing what time of day it was, Nathan assumed Jake was in class and so got out of bed. He pottered around the room, chewing on a sandwich and putting away his clothes so he could sit at his computer desk. Once the chair was clear, Nathan plonked himself down, cramming another sandwich into his mouth. For a moment his hand hovered over the power button for his PC but Nathan had a change of mind and instead grabbed his sketchpad and a pencil. Flipping to a fresh page, he tapped the spiral binding with the end of the pencil for a moment, thinking intently as crumbs fell onto his baggy space invaders shirt. 

Once he had been struck with inspiration, Nathan set out sketching, first basic shapes that he then filled out into a full scene. His phone buzzed once, by Nathan paid no heed as he was locked into his drawing. In the back of his mind he could imagine the anime scene where Nathan would be wearing glasses that flashed as his hand swept dramatically over the page, all dynamic angles that showed him smugly working without revealing the picture. Unfortunately, life was not an anime. 

Looking down at his fully formed idea, Nathan was filled with hatred. Quickly he ripped the offending page out of his sketchbook and started over, shoving the anime imagery out of his head to focus what was on the page. It was only marginally better. Nathan let out a frustrated grunt and ripped the page out, taking more care to try and set up the bones of the image before he went in to fill out the details. This third attempt was a lot better, but Nathan still wasn’t pleased.

“It lacks depth, add some shadows.” Caldwell’s voice came from behind Nathan.

Instinctively, Nathan looked around but he was alone in his room, just like always. Rolling his eyes, Nathan returned to viciously staring at his artwork.

“Shut up,” He mumbled. There was a paused and then he added “I wouldn’t know how to add shading even if I wanted to.”

“Try hatching.” Imaginary Caldwell made some sort of verbal shrug. 

“I don’t want to try hatching. It’s dumb.” Nathan muttered, picking up his pencil to tap tap tap it on the side of his sketchbook again.

“Yes you do.” Caldwell retorted.

“No, I  _ don’t _ .” Nathan insisted. 

“You do though. Let’s face it Yaffe, I  _ know _ you - mainly because I’m the voice inside your head but whatever - and you like to imitate artists you like to improve. You’ve seen me experimenting with hatching in AP Art. You want to try it too because, let’s face it, my art is better than yours.” Caldwell spoke matter-of-factly, causing Nathan to growl.

“I have nothing to learn, especially from you. Shut up.” 

“Fine, it’s your funeral.” Caldwell did another verbal shrug and went silent.

Nathan paused for a moment to make sure Imaginary Caldwell was really gone and then he booted up his computer. Getting his drawing tablet out, Nathan went about transferring his artwork into photoshop. The freedom to edit without having to start from the beginning was liberating, and Nathan found himself fiddling and changing and experimenting until the sky outside had grown dark.

“Nathan, come down to dinner. Your dad made Matzo Ball soup!” His mother shouted, rapping on the door.

“Coming!” Nathan shouted back.

Quickly he saved his work and left the computer on as he raced downstairs for his favourite dinner. On the screen it was clear that he had eventually given in and attempted hatching, trying his best to create gritty shadows on his linework. For his first attempt it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t quite suited to Nathan’s personal style. 

At least he had tried.


End file.
